the knight of the pen rises

Do you know Januarius A. MacGahan?  He was a liberator, an ‘activist,’ and writer.  People of Bulgaria were granted new opportunities due to the ink in his pen.

I enjoy serving up informational tidbits here and there, introducing ideas and concepts.  Maybe it’s the teacher man in me.

Helping others is an enriching process.  Helping people learn is especially powerful.  It’s like throwing them the keys to the car, granting them carte blanche to put it in high, switch four lanes with the top down, shoutin’ out learning ain’t a thing.  (I analogize.)

So, why am I referencing 19^th century men of the pen and Jermaine Dupri songs?  Am I just being silly?  Like the jesters in lines of Shakespeare, there may be some method in my madness.

I bid adieu to my ado; let’s visit the origin of my endeavor at your attention.  How does one become successful at writing?  That’s a great question.  I’ll never know if I am (It’s not for me to say.)  However, I promise I’m always becoming, always trying to rise.

If I can help others en route, I will.  A young writer, Alex Morask, recently sent me an email after reading my content conversation with Nick Eubanks.

First, it’s incredibly cool of Alex to ask me some questions.  Secondly, I thought it would be great to share the answers, allowing others to read my thoughts.  Then, I was like, “Wait.  Hmm, who are some writers ‘on the scene’ I really enjoy? …Sullivan, Klettke, Agate…  Yes. I’ll bring Agate along on the interview.

Alex asked good questions.  I hope James and I can offer good advice to Alex and other writers.

I know that if you ever want a job in content strategy, you have to produce content yourself. But as a student, I have little to no true work experience in the field. I’m starting a website for myself and I’d like to blog about content and social media strategy, but do you think that would be looked down upon when I really haven’t had a chance to apply my knowledge in the real world. 

Word, James.  Alex, carpe diem, my friend.

Start creating experiences for yourself, just as you did in emailing me.  You got my attention with your passion and willingness to learn.  I reckon there are others who will also admire that.

You’re starting a blog yourself?  (I know a guy who…) Do it!  Read all you can on topics that interest you; ask questions (a lot of them); interact with people on social media platforms; comment, letting your thoughts and brand be known; and, never get discouraged  <—.  If the interest is there, you’ll find experiences; they will also come to you.

Are you waiting to apply your experiences?  Why wait?  Start perusing opportunities to help others.  Think about doing pro bono work at first, to gain the ‘experience.’  That helps others; helping gives you opportunity to build your experience as well.

What kind of jobs do you think I should be targeting out of school? I’m not sure if most strategists work for marketing firms or work in-house at companies. If you have any suggestions on what examples of my work I should be showing, that’d be awesome as well.

My advice would be to find the agency you want to work at and get your foot in the door. Most of the best content/digital marketing agencies have a fairly fluid recruitment policy i.e. they want the best people on board, once they’re on board then they figure out what each person is going to do.

They might not have a content strategist position open now, they might not call it a ‘content strategist’ in fact they might not know they need a content strategist yet but there’s no need to stress yourself about this. Finding the right organisation that is going to give you the best opportunities (in terms of the clients you work with and the long term career prospects) is far more important in the early stages than the role you are actually applying for.

When I was getting started out of school I got a job at a magazine publisher because I wanted to be involved with that company, they are a great brand here in the UK and the connections and possibilities were endless. What I had noticed (and why I wanted to work there) was that nearly every employee at that company past and present was connected somehow, they all helped eachother, introduced eachother to business associates, helped one another make connections. That really excited me.

I took an incredibly boring admin role to get me in, then I created the job I wanted and got the connections I needed. It was only a stepping stone and I had a plan in mind so immediately my concerns about the job being “dead end” were laid to rest.

Alex, be as objective as you can, understanding it’s a subjective world; meaning, it’s great to have particular positions or agencies in mind.  But try to balance that fine line of structure with going with the flow.

Also, be patient.  When I first started out, I was doing PR.  I didn’t know content strategy and overall business consulting was in my future.  I just loved writing and thinking.  I didn’t even know if I wanted to stay in ‘business.’

Your future is wide open.  Understand, working at an agency may give you opportunity to learn things from those with experience (For instance, I’m a writer with PR experience.  That makes me a double-edged sword.)  Alternatively, going to work at a boutique firm or a startup may present you with more immediate responsibility and the opportunity to eventually blaze your own trails.

Keep becoming, understanding things change (that’s a good thing), including your confidence, skill sets, and ability to see the  ‘larger’ picture.

To break into content strategy, I assume the number one thing for me would be to start blogging myself, but can you recommend any other courses of action I should be taking or educational resources I should be looking into?

Great advice, James.  I love this post by Courtney Seiter on being interested.  That philosophy works in all facets of life.  When you give, you get.  If you’re interested in others, you invite their interest as well.

Dive in the community.  Some receptions are warmer than others in the waters; don’t let that discourage you.  Keep focus, continue becoming.

I love James’ advice on relationships.  Dan Shure was the first person in the community to really help me out.  I enjoyed this post; I loved his writing style, sending him an email, asking if he would like to team-up for a post.

Dan was immediately busy, but liked an idea I had.  He said he would give my post ‘a look’ if I wrote it up.  I did.  He offered me advice; then I sent it over to Mike King, who placed it on his blog.  The help of others held intrinsic value for me.  I was ‘on a mission’ thereafter.  I attended my first industry conference this summer (also due to the guidance of Dan Shure), and made great (IMO) friendships and connections with people I respect.

As far as educational resources, be an informational monster.  Read SEO blogs, marketing blogs, psychology blogs, and so on. (What does psych have to do with marketing/business? Everything.)  Return to old-school marketing texts; go to the library and take a gander at studies performed in the past; keep your mind on the pulse of a rapidly-changing online industry and keep rising.

I thought it would be fun to turn the interrogation tables on Alex.  Also, I knew I would be putting this on my blog, thinking other peers (maybe people looking for a writer/strategist?) could benefit from peering into the mind of this young man.

In your opinion, what do you believe are needed tools (this could be experience, degrees, attitude, whatever) to become successful in the space.. (There are no wrong answers)

To me it seems you need to have three traits in this industry to truly succeed. The first–an ever-evolving understanding of concepts, strategies, tactics and tools that go into developing a comprehensive digital marketing plan. A plan that includes content creation, social media, SEO, email marketing, lead generation/nurturing and analytics. That’s not to say you’ve got to be an expert in each one of these fields. But you should be able to create a plan has all of these aspects working together collectively. The second trait.. is the ability to effectively implement the plan you’ve created. Because it’s probably difficult to be a marketer when you haven’t marketed anything. Implementation is what it’s all about. And success in this field is based on numerically accountable. The third trait of a successful marketer is being an excellent storyteller. And this usually goes hand in hand with being a strong writer and communicator. The ability to identify and understand a target audience, coupled with the ability to craft compelling and persuasive content that solves that audience’s needs is something I consider essential. So in the the end, three traits I associate with marketing success are education, experience and storytelling capabilities.

Just to clarify–When I say education, I’m not insisting that you must have a formal education or a degree. I’m currently majoring in advertising. A degree that hasn’t benefited me very much at all in the digital marketing field. In fact, almost all the classes I take are completely unrelated! I taught myself what I know entirely from blogs, books, online courses and following thought leaders. There’s an ocean of information of how this field works available online. Navigating and applying it is up to the student.

I guess I’ll finish this question off by mentioning that having the right tools is a necessity. Maybe not so much having the tools, but understanding how to use them. You’ve got to have your own blog or website that you optimize for search and create content on. You should be able to implement landing pages, email campaigns, use the various social networks, etc. And there’s a lof of awesome software out there that helps people through this stuff. Lord knows I don’t come from the technical side.

Secondly, what is your view on ‘influencers’ and what would you expect/hope for in someone you ‘look up to’?

Influencers are invaluable in this industry. Some more than others. I’m not sure about other students, but digital marketing was something I kind of picked up on my own without college classes. And because of this, professionals who were (schedule willing of course) able to share their expertise, advice, and knowledge with me when I really needed it were a bigger help than they’ll ever realize.

You see, the fields of digital marketing are relatively new. So students like me lack understanding on how to effectively break into the field. It’s simply not easy to get your foot in the door when you don’t know how. And that’s an area where influencers can really help. By offering recommendations on what skills students should be focusing on, what tools we should be learning, what should fill our portfolio, and what kind of positions we should be aiming for, they can give us a leg up on landing our first gig and start getting the real-world experience that we need.

For me personally, influencers played a huge part in my progression as a marketing student. I began learning when I stumbled across Brian Clark and Copyblogger. And now I’ve been reading their work for over a year and a half and have also purchased some of their products. All of which have helped improve my copywriting and content marketing skills. I’m also a big fan of Joe Pulizzi and the Content Marketing Institute. On top of all the awesome, daily content CMI pumps out, Joe even responded (in a very timely manner) to each one of my emails picking his brain for advice.I also follow Michael Stelzner and the Social Media Examiner, Sonia Simone, Jay Baer, James Chartrand, the folks at Hubspot, Derek Halpern, Chris Garret, Francisco Rosales, Heidi Cohen, Marcus Sheridan and the Contently team just to name a few.

Do you believe newcomers in search should have a broad marketing background or focus on a niche aspect to flourish?

Both. I believe that the various spaces in marketing (content creation, SEO, social media, lead generation, etc) all have to work together if you want to create an effective, holistic marketing system. Without one, it’s difficult for the others to operate efficiently. I believe a marketing professional who understands holistic systems and how each one of these areas work together is imperative to a successful marketing campaign.

However, I do believe it can be more difficult to find a job for someone that chooses to study a broader range of skills rather than mastering one. It seems that more companies are hiring people to fulfill specific marketing tasks (SEO Specialist, analyst, content writer, etc) rather than general positions. Thus, I think it’s important for a marketing student to focus in on a specific niche, while still paying attention to the ways other areas of online marketing not only work in general, but ways they affect, interact with and shape their niche.

Is there an alternative to Google (as most widely-used engine in sight?) and in general, how important is it for brands to still consider traditional, offline marketing methods in current-day business climate?

To answer the first question, when I think of Google.. I think of far more than just search. In addition to exclusively using Google for searching, I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Documents, Google Analytics and have a G+ profile. This provides me with a completely integrated control of the web. One that I’ll never get with any other provider. So there may be alternatives to Google as a search engine, but there are no alternatives to Google as a complete producer of seamless online experiences. And that’s why people will continue to use it over everything else.

For the second question, I’d say it depends on the type and size of the company. If you’re a larger brand and you have enough money in your marketing budget, then these methods can still be effective when used in conjunction with innovative online tactics. I think there’s little doubt that TV, print and outdoor are still effective for P&G, Coke, Nike, Lego and other brand giants. But these are companies that have also built an active, engaged community online to complement their offline ventures. Especially Coke, whose the biggest consumer product company leading the charge into Content marketing.

But if you’re a small business.. or a mom & pop shop.. things are a little different. Traditional tactics are too expensive to fit into your budget, so you have to increase your online marketing. Especially in the social media sector. The problem is that the ratio of small business owners who don’t understand online marketing to the ones who do is a lot to a little.

B2B is different also. I think all B2B companies should be looking for ways to heavily introduce content and inbound marketing to their marketing mix so as to replace the traditional methods that are becoming more and more inefficient. Now, I don’t mean B2B companies should try to get rid of offline tactics. A lot of B2B offline marketing still makes for really good content. Just look at brand magazines, advertorials, articles in trade publications, trade shows, public speaking engagements, etc. But B2B brands can find ways to put these offline tactics online and get them in front of a bigger audience.

A former jiu-jitsu teacher of mine and incredible teacher man, Steve Bongiorno, would oft say those words, alerting us that the student who is on the mat for their first time will learn from the black belts, and vice versa.

Thanks for the read, Musers!  And a special thanks to James Agate for being my partner here and Alex Morask for rising to the occasion, allowing us to think about our own trajectories, and the ability to help others along the way.

There is nothing more fulfilling for me than seeing someone else grow and being able to help them in some way…

— Chris Winfield (@chriswinfield) September 13, 2012